No West Nile virus found

Mosquito abatement efforts in Franklin County have come to an end for 2012 and none of the insects trapped and tested were shown to carry West Nile Virus.

“During the course of the spring, summer and fall we set out 200 live traps in 10 different locations throughout the county. We trapped a lot of mosquitos and sent them to labs for testing on a periodic basis.

“We do have mosquitos that can carry West Nile, but none of the countless ones that were tested had the virus,” said Denny Jiles, assistant supervisor of the county’s Mosquito Abatement District. “We lucked out.”

Jiles said even though the area suffered through an extremely dry and hot summer mosquito counts were average or just above average.

“We’re done with mosquito control for this year and I think we did pretty good at keeping populations under control,” he said. “We applied larvacide to waters in specific locations and ran our fogging truck throughout the county. We tried to respond to citizen complaints in a timely fashion.”

“I think our efforts resulted in significant reductions of the biting pests and there was success in Banida and other areas, typically known for high infestations of the bothersome insect.”

This story is sponsored by Franklin County Medical Center Family Physicians.

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